Harassed for Saudi Airlines' lone office

Hundreds of Saudi Arabia-bound passengers, mainly workers, yesterday queue up on a field behind Sonargaon Hotel as the Saudi Airlines monopolises the ticketing business leading to harassment of passengers. Photo: STAR

Saudi Arabia-bound Bangladeshi workers are subjected to harassment and sufferings just because the kingdom's national airlines has a single office in the country to reconfirm their return tickets while there is a huge rush of passengers.
The passengers, almost all of them workers, have to wait for hours together in long queues time and gain in front of Saudi Arabian Airlines' office at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital. This a common sight round the year -- even in chilly cold and foggy winter nights and on scorching summer days -- with the workers struggling for ticket reconfirmation.
They come to the capital from across the country, reside in hotels or even under the open sky for days. And many of them run the risk of loosing jobs if the airline does not reconfirm their return tickets before expiry of their visas.
In an effort to solve the problems, the Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh (ATAB) proposed to the airline to have a mechanism for allowing travel agents to reconfirm the return tickets but it rejected the proposal. Recently, it decided to have an office in Chittagong.
About 6,000 to 8,000 workers and others seek to leave for Saudi Arabia per week but the Saudi Airlines can carry only around 4,500 when all its 12 regular flights operate. And due to rescheduling of flights for hajj pilgrims, the number came down to some 2500 worsening the sufferings of passengers.
There are around 15 lakh Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia.
“We, about 100 passengers, stayed in a field in the capital for seven days and we are yet to get our tickets reconfirmed,” said Abdul Mazid, a worker who was in Saudi Arabia for four years and came home on a four-month vacation.
“The airline staffs gave me a token asking me to come to their office a week later. But when I came that day, a staff just threw my token away,” he told this correspondent.
Another passenger, Mohammad Manik, said, “After four days of stay in Dhaka, I went back home and have come again to get a token.”
Some workers, whose visas would expire in four to five days, had to pay bribes to some Ansar personnel who give the serial numbers for reconfirmation of tickets, he said. “One of them also asked for bribe from me but I did not pay.”
Protesting such harassments and irregularities, around 1000 intending passengers staged a sit-in on nearby Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue on December 30. The authorities deployed police near the hotel to check any untoward incident.
According to a foreign ministry official, the government repeatedly asked the Saudi Airline to expand its office but it did not.
When contacted, Reservation Manager of the airline Abdul Hamid said the airline reduced the number of Dhaka-KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) flights to six from 12 a week since early December for carrying hajj pilgrims, but it has arranged some special flights considering the rush of other passengers from Dhaka.
The 12 flights a week will resume on January 25, he said. They have asked the passengers who confirmed their tickets while buying those in the KSA to go directly to airport four hours prior to departure of flights, in stead of coming to the airline office for reconfirmation, he added.
“The passengers however are not following our instructions,” Hamid said.
Besides, passengers who have one to two months time are also coming for reconfirming tickets. “We already asked passengers not to contact us more than 15 days prior to their departure.”
He further said, “We also advertised in the media saying passengers whose visa will expire in one week or less but have not confirmed their return flights should immediately contact our reservation office so that we may take urgent steps.”
The airline's second office will be opened in Chittagong in mid-March this year, heioned.
On taking bribes from passengers, he said when people are in trouble, some ones might take advantage of it. “I always suggest them not to give money and passports to any brokers.”